Maya CER

The End of the Classical Period Creative agricultural techniques were not enough to save Classic Maya civilization. For about 600 years, the great cities of the southern lowlands thrived. Then, around 750 C.E., the civilization that supported these centers fell apart. By 900 C.E., the Maya had abandoned their large cities to the jungle.
The collapse of Classic Maya civilization is one of the great mysteries of Mesoamerican history, and many theories have been offered to explain what happened. Some historians believe that the populations of the cities grew faster than the Maya farming systems could sustain them. Scholars have also proposed that long periods of drought caused massive crop failure.
Another possible cause of the Maya's downfall was uncontrolled warfare. In the centuries after 300 C.E., the skirmishes that were common among city-states grew into full-fledged wars. A final possibility is that invaders from central Mexico helped to destroy the Maya city-states.
Perhaps a combination of factors ended the Classic period. What we do know is that the great cities disappeared. The Maya migrated away from the old Maya heartland and returned to village life. Stone by stone, the jungle reclaimed the great pyramids and plazas.
Although the great Maya cities are ruins today, Maya culture lives on. About two million Maya still live in the southern Mexican state of Chiapas, with millions more spread throughout the Yucatán Peninsula and the cities and the rural farm communities of Belize, Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador.